Britney pushes dance-pop in 'Femme Fatale'

by Larry Rodgers - Mar. 21, 2011 06:26 PMThe Arizona Republic

On her seventh studio album, Britney Spears continues to push the envelope on dance-pop in a way few other artists can. It doesn't hurt to have the best producers that money can buy on call 24/7 or to have mega-hitmakers Max Martin and Dr. Luke writing and twisting knobs in the studio.

Britney Spears: 'Femme Fatale'

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At 29, Spears has happily surrendered control of her vocals, which are even more heavily processed and manipulated than on her solid 2008 release, "Circus." She also has turned the bad-girl quotient up another notch or two.

Spears has said this CD, available Tuesday, March 29, is targeted at the dance floor, and she's among the best in the business in delivering that kind of fare when she nails it.

Lead single "Hold It Against Me," with its bursts of ultra-funky synthesizer and an infectious chorus, got the marketing of the new CD off to a strong start. The follow-up single, "Till the World Ends," is just as heavy sonically, even if the lyrics are lightweight: "See the sunlight, we ain't stoppin / Keep on dancing til the world ends."

Spears lets out a lusty laugh at the end of the churning dance track "Drop Dead Beautiful," as she tells her latest target, "Boy, come over here with your sexy ass" (after she has made a veiled reference to another part of his anatomy).

Even her laughter on that song gets run through the auto-tune equipment that now is heard on so many pop and hip-hop songs. The vocal manipulation gets excessive at times, such as at the end of "Inside Out" and in "Trouble For Me."

But perhaps the biggest disappointment is "Big Fat Bass," penned and produced by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. Things get progressively more messy after a shakly start with such lyrics as, "I can be the treble, baby, you can be the bass." (And will.i.am inexplicably uses low bursts of synthesizer, rather than a speaker-rumbling bass guitar, to provide the bass.)

Spears breaks the dance mold with "Criminal," a "loving-the-bad-boy" ballad that is appealing but could have benefited from more minimalist production. The breezy, syncopated "Trip to Your Heart," with its high-pitched chorus, is about as romantic as Spears gets these days.

Most of the time on this 12-track disc, Spears is singing "I wanna go all the way" (on the throbbing "I Wanna Go"), promising some guy that "We can tear it up tonight" (on the empty calories of "How I Roll") or working up an appetite for "forbidden fruit" (on the by-the-numbers dance track "Seal It With a Kiss.")

We wouldn't expect anything less of an agenda from pop music's most infamous femme fatale.

(The "deluxe edition" of "Femme Fatale" includes four more tracks, highlighted by the rocker "Don't Keep Me Waiting," overflowing with big guitars and booming drums.)